The Tu An Hieu Nghia or “Four debts of gratitude” religion received the decision of recognition at a ceremony held in the southern province of An Giang on July 27.

Under the decision No. 1114/QD-UBND of the An Giang People’s Committee signed on June 16, 2010, the home-grown Tu An Hieu Nghia was allowed to operate in line with the law of the State of Vietnam.

Earlier, the religion held it first congress for the 2010-2015 term at Tam Buu – Phi Lai pagoda, Tri Ton district of An Giang province.

As a locally-originated religion, Tu An Hieu Nghia was founded in 1867 by Ngo (Tu) Loi in the Bay Nui region of the Mekong delta province of An Giang. The religion has so far attracted tens of thousands of followers, not only in An Giang but also from its neighbouring localities.

Its tenets are the combination of the principles of three religions – Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The followers live and practise under the principle of learning from Buddhist to cultivate virtue and morals and paying four debts of gratitude, to one’s parents, country, three refuges – Buddha, Dharma, Sangha – and fellow citizens and all mankind.

During its inception, most of the followers were patriotic feudal intellectuals during the past resistance against the French colonialists. Later on, Bay Nui remained a revolutionary base of southern Vietnam during the US war for national reunification.

Since being officially recognised by the state, the religion and its authorities have strengthened its system and helped the party and state to improve social welfare for followers and people living in the region.

LONDON, July 26, 2010 (AFP) – BP said Monday no final decision has been reached on a change of management, after reports claimed chief executive Tony Hayward would resign in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

This still image from a live BP video feed shows a submersible(not seen) checking the integrity of the well head on July 25, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. AFP

The British energy giant said it noted “the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management” as well as the charge for the costs of the spill.

“BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters,” the company statement said.

It added that the board was meeting Monday evening ahead of the release of second quarter results on Tuesday.

Inexplicably, the People’s Committee of the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen has given a woman lacking formal knowledge of medicine a green light to continue her perplexing methodology of treating diseased people by walking on the pained portions of their bodies.

For years, crowds of patients from all over the country have gathered at the house of Pham Thi Phu on Co Street in the country town of Song Cong. Phu is a self-proclaimed doctor an unorthodox treatment methodology of stepping on patients’ pain.

The woman, a former vegetable vendor, has proclaimed to possess ability to treat all ailments, even HIV or cancer, after being hospitalized in province hospitals and in Hanoi for treatment for mental illness in 2005.

Although her illegal treatments have taken place for years, the local government could only impose fines, but could not shut the operation, Dang Mong Diep, deputy head of Song Cong People’s Committee admitted.

Inspectors of the Ministry of Health question a patient at Phu’s house

More unfathomably, the Research Centre of Human Potentials and the Traditional Cultural Supporting Research Center have concluded, after studying her methodology, that her extrasensory perception does improve patients’ health, helping to reduce illnesses in some patients.

Two centers have proposed the local government study Phu’s methods further to learn how she creates favorite condition to treat patients, despite the Department of Health (DOH)’s affirmation that her methods are not supported by science.

The Ministry of Health has known of the unorthodox treatments taking place at Phu’s house for years, but strangely, only sent out a team last week to Thai Nguyen, to investigate the popular unlicensed work, reporting to relevant agencies, dispatching obscure instructions to the DOH.

Public concern has been raised over the People’s Committee’s decision and that of the two centers, as well as over the tardily taken actions by the ministry.

HELSINKI, March 24, 2010 (AFP) – Eurozone countries must decide on assistance to Greece this week, the European Union’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn was reported as saying Wednesday.

“The technical preparedness is there. Now we need a political decision. This is also important for Greece, so that it would know what to expect,” Olli Rehn told Finland’s leading daily Helsingin Sanomat in a joint-interview with Denmark’s Politiken and Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet.

“We are at a crossroads. Greece can cause serious damage (to the euro), or we can learn from the crisis,” he said.

A decision should be made at the EU’s two-day summit, which begins Thursday, Rehn was reported as saying.

Several options are on the table for helping Greece out of its debt crisis, with eurozone countries stepping in by offering voluntary bilateral loans seen as one option alongside assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Once a political decision has been made about the mechanism, it could be realised quickly, if needed,” Rehn said.

Eurozone economic powerhouse Germany has repeatedly downplayed the need for the bloc to help Athens, arguing that rescuing Greece would take away the incentive for the Greek government to enact reforms to cut its huge puiblic deficit of 12.7 percent of output, or four times the EU limit.

“I understand Germany’s concerns,” Rehn said, adding that he did not see IMF loans as a problem, as long as the management of the support package to Greece remained with the EU and assistance complied with EU rules.

“The EU is close to the IMF. We are partners,” he said.

Burdened by debt of nearly 300 billion euros (402 billion dollars), the Greek government has not ruled out an appeal to the IMF in the absence so far of a clear cut aid commitment from its eurozone partners.

A specially-convened summit of the 16 eurozone leaders was expected to be convened Thursday to thrash out a plan for addressing the crisis ahead of the full summit of 27 EU leaders on later Thursday and Friday.

China on Tuesday executed a British citizen caught smuggling heroin, the British Foreign Office said, in a move quickly condemned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Akmal Shaikh‘s family and the British government had appealed for clemency, arguing the former businessman suffered from bipolar disorder. The Chinese supreme court rejected the appeal saying there was insufficient grounds.

“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,” Brown said in a statement issued by the British Foreign Office.

China had yet to publicly confirm Shaikh had been executed in the western city of Urumqi at the time Brown made the statement. Shaikh had been due to be executed on Tuesday morning.

Shaikh was still “hopeful” when relatives met him in Urumqi this weekend, his cousin Soohail Shaikh told reporters at Beijing airport late on Monday night.

“We beg the Chinese authorities for mercy and clemency to help reunite the heartbroken family,” Soohail Shaikh had said.

Brown last week asked China not to execute Shaikh, who was born in Pakistan and moved to Britain as a boy. While not leading to any diplomatic rift, the case could harden public opinion in Britain against China, and also rile Chinese public opinion.

The two countries recently traded accusations over the troubled Copenhagen climate change negotiations.

Shaikh’s defenders, including British rights group Reprieve which lobbies against the death penalty, say he was tricked into smuggling the heroin by a gang who promised to make him a pop star. Arrested in 2007, a Chinese court rejected his final appeal on December 21.

Reprieve posted on the Internet a recording Shaikh made of a song, “Come Little Rabbit”, which it described as “dreadful” but which Shaikh believed would be an international hit and help bring about world peace.

He would be the first European citizen to be executed in China since 1951, Western rights groups say.

Shaikh’s family says he suffered from bipolar disorder, and was tricked into becoming a mule by a smuggling gang who promised him a music recording contract.

“This is not about how much we hate the drug trade. Britain as well as China are completely committed to take it on,” the British Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, said in a statement emailed to reporters. “The issue is whether Mr. Shaikh has become an additional victim of it.”

China said Tuesday it “regrets” a decision by the World Trade Organization to reject its appeal against a ruling that orders Beijing to free up distribution of US films, music and books.

The WTO entrance

The WTO appeals body on Monday upheld its August ruling that China was breaching international trade commitments by blocking foreign-owned companies from acting as importers and wholesalers — a charge Beijing denies.

“China has conscientiously carried out its obligations under WTO rules in terms of access to the publishing market since its entry into the WTO,” the commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.

“China thinks cultural products feature commercial value as well as cultural value, which determines that the management of the trade of such products should be differentiated from that of general commodities.”

The commerce ministry said it “regrets” the ruling but did not say if China would comply with the appellate body’s decision. Beijing faces possible sanctions if it fails to free up imports.

The ruling, which is now final, affects distribution in China of foreign films for theatrical release, DVDs, music, books and journals.

China currently allows 20 foreign films to be shown in local movie theatres every year on a revenue-sharing basis, according to Chinafilm.com, a government linked website.

The United States hailed the decision as a “big win”.

“We are very pleased that the WTO has found against China’s import and distribution restrictions,” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

“The Appellate Body’s findings are key to ensuring full market access in China for legitimate, high-quality entertainment products and the exporters and distributors of those products,” he said.

Kirk added that “we expect China to respond promptly to these findings and bring its measures into compliance.”

The United States and China have for months been locked in a tit-for-tat trade tussle involving a number of WTO complaints and retaliatory measures on an array of products, from chicken meat to US car products to Chinese tyres.

Media reports Tuesday said Japan has delayed until next year a decision on the relocation of a major US military base on the southern island of Okinawa that’s at the center of a growing row between Tokyo and Washington.

Kyodo News Agency said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had put off a decision on the future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, attributing unnamed government sources, while the mass circulation newspaper Asahi Shimbun said the decision had been postponed until May.

Spokesmen from the prime minister’s office, Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry could not confirm the reports.

The dispute over Futenma has strained ties between the two allies and trading partners, and the U.S. had hoped for a decision by year-end.

According to a 2006 agreement between Japan and the U.S. to reorganize American troops in Japan, Futenma was to be moved to a less crowded part of northern Okinawa, but Hatoyama has said the relocation site could be changed — perhaps even off the island.

Okinawa residents complain about base-related noise, pollution and crime, and many want the airfield closed and its functions moved off the island entirely.

The 2006 reorganization plan, made under the previous conservative Tokyo government, was aimed at lightening the load on Okinawa, which hosts more than half the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan under a security pact.

Part of the plan involved moving about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam by 2014, but the U.S. military says that plan cannot move forward until Futenma’s replacement facility is finalized.

Hatoyama, whose party came to power in a landslide election in August, has promised that Tokyo would adopt a less subservient relationship with Washington, but has also stressed that the U.S. security alliance was the cornerstone of Japan’s diplomacy.

His Cabinet is divided and has sent mixed signals on what to do about the future of Futenma. The leader of a left-leaning junior coalition partner has hinted her party would withdraw from the government if the base is moved to Nago.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa have said it would be difficult to find a site not on the island, and have suggested honoring the current agreement. Kitazawa visited Guam recently to check out other options, but warned that pushing for a major change in the plan would hurt trust between the two allies.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on November 17 asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to examine and complete a draft decision on an overall golf course plan through 2020 and said no golf courses should be built on rice-growing land.

The Long Thanh golf course in the southern province of Dong Nai.

PM Dung also said no golf courses should be built on land intended strictly for industrial zones, urban areas and forests, and not to use state budget funds to build the courses.

According to Luu Duc Hai, director of the Department of Urban Development, golf courses in the country cover from 80 to 700 hectares each with most built on farmland.

As well, some investors make use of land for golf courses to develop other projects, and land for the actual golf courses accounts for just a small percentage of the total land needed for the projects, Mr. Hai said.

Land rent for golf courses is lower than that of other property such as villas, houses and trade centers, so many investors have exploited this to recoup their investment faster.

To restrict the number of such cases, PM Dung asked the ministry to make clear in the draft law that no hotels or villas are allowed to be built on land intended for golf courses and the land cannot be sold or transferred.

In regards to granting licenses to build golf courses, it would be the responsibility of the provincial People’s Committees to decide which investors to grant licenses to and revoke licenses in cases where state rules are violated, he said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama denied that “paranoid” objections from Russia influenced his decision to abandon plans by the former Bush administration to site a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

“Russia had always been paranoid about this, but George Bush was right, this wasn’t a threat to them,” Obama said in an interview on CBS show “Face the Nation” days before he is set to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the United Nations.

“This program will not be a threat to them. So my task here was not to negotiate with the Russians,” Obama said, responding to claims by some domestic critics that his move amounted to appeasement of confrontational Russian policies.

“The Russians don’t make determinations about what our defense posture is. We have made a decision about what will be best to protect the American people as well as our troops in Europe and our allies,” Obama said.

“If the by-product of it is that the Russians feel a little less paranoid and are now willing to work more effectively with us to deal with threats like ballistic missiles from Iran or nuclear development in Iran, you know, then that’s a bonus.”

Obama last week announced that he would shelve plans to site parts of a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and instead deploy more mobile equipment targeting Iran’s short and medium-range missiles.

File photo of a Russian missile complex “Iskander” on display during a military equipment exhibition in the Siberian town of Nizhny Tagil (AFP photo)

The White House has denied it orchestrated a quid pro quo with Moscow by agreeing to halt work on the missile shield in a bid to win more cooperation on issues like Iran’s nuclear program.

But foreign policy experts are closely watching to see whether Moscow offers any concessions following the US decision, as both sides seek to “reset” a relationship plagued by Cold War-style rhetoric in recent years.

Russia has broadly welcomed the US move.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday praised Obama’s action as “brave” but called for more US measures to lift Soviet-era restrictions on the export of high technology to Russia and to help its World Trade Organization membership bid.

Obama and Medvedev will meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, with the Iranian nuclear showdown and joint efforts to agree cuts in strategic nuclear weapons also on the agenda.

The US president’s decision on the missile shield means that Washington will not now deploy an anti-missile radar in the Czech Republic or missile interceptors in Poland.

Obama reasoned that a slower than expected development path by Iran on long-range missiles meant that the prime threat to the United States and its allies now came from short and medium-range weapons.

Initially, the new system will see the US military deploy interceptors on ships then seek to deploy land-based technology in Europe from 2015.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that the previous system would not have been operational until at least 2017 at the earliest and insisted the shift provided “greater flexibility to adapt as new threats develop and old ones recede.”

“We are strengthening — not scrapping — missile defense in Europe,” he wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also defended the decision as “a stronger and smarter approach” in a opinion piece in the Financial Times.

“We are not ‘shelving’ missile defense. We are enhancing our capacity to protect our interests and our allies,” Clinton wrote.

“We are not walking away from our allies but are deploying a system that enhances allied security, advances our cooperation with NATO, and actually places more resources in more countries.”

The top US diplomat also repeated that “this decision was not about Russia.”

“It was about Iran and the threat that its ballistic missile programs continue to pose. And because of this decision, we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat, and to do so with technology that works.”